THE roles haven't exactly been flooding in for Bad Girls actress Antonia Okonma since the show was axed last year.

Times were so lean that Antonia, 23, was working for £15 an hour in a call centre.

So she was delighted when popular daytime show Through The Keyhole offered her £850 to appear. It wasn't a starring role on Coronation Street but at least it was a chance for Antonia to get her face on TV again.

The only problem was that the actress - who played Yardie Darlene Cake in Bad Girls - lives with her mother, brother and a friend in a two-bed former council flat.

Undeterred, Antonia rang up an estate agent friend who lent her a £750,000 apartment in London's swanky Knightsbridge while the owner was away on holiday.

She shifted photos, ornaments and trinkets into the plush flat, which presenter Lisa Snowdon then showed off to programme host Sir David Frost, before asking: "Who lives in a house like this?"

Antonia was rumbled only when friends of the owner saw the show and tipped the woman off. She got hold of the star's number and gave her a real dressing-down.

A friend said Antonia, whose real home is set among 1960s tower blocks in West Kensington, West London, thought the Knightsbridge apartment was perfect, with its luxurious white sofa and flat-screen TV. It even had iron bars at the entrance that fitted with the Bad Girls theme.

The friend went on: "The truth is that she was a little embarrassed by her own home which is her mother's two-bedroom ex-council flat.

"She shares it with her mother, brother and a family friend. She decided to call in this estate agent friend, Andy. He said, 'No problem, you can use this house'.

"She thought it was OK to borrow.

"She took all her bits and pieces round, put some photos up, scattered some Bad Girls scripts around. She took some books on Jamaican hairstyles and Afro-Caribbean culture to dot about the place."

Antonia admitted to the Mirror yesterday: "I did use a property that was not my own. I did not want to disclose the location of my real home for personal reasons."

Her friend added: "She put herself up to go on Through The Keyhole because she is so desperate for work that any publicity is good publicity. But it could all backfire now."

A BBC spokesman said: "We are very disappointed that she behaved like this and, in doing so, spoilt a very popular show."